Iowa nursing homes feeling budget pinch [View all]
As the population increasingly ages, government programs that many rely on to pay the high cost of long-term care are not keeping pace and even then sometimes get delayed — often leaving nursing homes struggling to make ends meet.
In Iowa — especially rural Iowa — the situation is worsened by the state’s controversial privately run Medicaid operation, which nursing home officials say has increased the number of contested payments and left the homes holding the bag while the cases are under appeal.
The cost of nursing home care averaged $82,000 a year nationally in 2016, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And Medicaid — instead of private insurance — is the largest payer for the care, accounting for 62 percent of the share.
In Iowa, more than 400 nursing homes accept patients who pay through Medicaid or Medicare, the government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor, a federal database shows.
Read more: http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-nursing-homes-feeling-budget-pinch-20180113